Heating and temperature issues?

[AaronPumaVCT]

Hi people
glad to tell you i am back in a puma, but unfortunately with problems
i would drive the car upto temperature and it would take longer than usual to reach the halfway normal mark than my two previous pumas.
it would also wonder past the halfway to around 3/4 biased towards red but not in the red.
also it would not blow any hot air at all. i also notice when i set the blower speed to 3 it doesnt blow at all but blows on 1,2 and 4.
i replaced the hcv with one from a breakers but i noticed the one i removed looked in good condition and was ford stamped and coded, the one from the breakers had no markings?
i then swapped the hcv over left the resovoir cap of the header tank and run the car for around 30minutes with the occasional fast idle and trying to squeeze coolant hoses to rid any possible airlocks.
the temperature gauge would not go above 1/4 even after a drive.
the hot air also blew luke warm to warm then cold again randomly and the temperature switch on the control panel seemed useless.
also when squeezing the coolant hoses i noticed they felt really saggy and extremely easy to squeeze like there could be low water pressure ?

i "think" (will happily stand corrected)
there may be a airlock somewere which would explain the hot to cold air at random, but i am unsure of the correct bleeding procedure and how to go about if the airlock would be in the heater matrix.
any help input oppinions or advice would be extremely appreciated.
many thanks in advance
Aaron

 

[AaronPumaVCT]

forgot to mention it is a 1998 r reg

 

[AaronPumaVCT]

Anyone ? please lol

 

[DOH]

Three things to try:
1) With the engine running let it approach normal running temperature, set heater control to max hot , fan blower doesn't need to be on. after 10-15minutes(as the weather is v cold and takes a while to warm up ). then very gradually loosen the yellow expansion bottle cap. Only just enough to let out excess pressure. This if you are lucky will bleed out the air in the system. you may need to do this a couple of times. Check now that the hose running from the inner wing to expansion bottle from the radiator is now getting warm. With a bit of luck your heater will now get warm also.
2) Assuming you've checked that the thermostat is opening ok by touching hose on left hand side of housing below alternator.
If it has and the water still won't circulate, you may have a blockage.
A good way to clear this is with the engine off & make sure you have the yellow expansion cap fitted tightly. Then remove the small bore hose going onto the expansion bottle which runs along the inner wing from the top of the rad (referred to in 1 above) .
Now get a empty 2litre soft drinks bottle and place the hose inside it. then get an airline blow nozzle and blow through the expansion bottle bit that it fits to. the 2litre bottle will start to fill up as soon as the blockage has been cleared. This method will fill a 2 litre in approx 5 seconds

You can now reconnect your hose to the expansion bottle and assuming the coolant is clean, you can now pour it back into the expansion tank.

This method will ensure you don't waste too much antifreeze coolant .
I've found the airline method an excellent method to drain most of the coolant from the engine as when you loosen the drain plug at the bottom of the radiator, it either goes everywhere on the floor or you have to only open it a tiny bit which takes ages.
Obviously once you've used the airline to drain as much of the coolant as possible, the last bit can be removed by removing the rad plug.
3) If that doesn't sort things you will have to remove the alternator and then thermostat and check through the aperture that the Water pump impellor hasn't broken up or come loose on the spindle.

 

[AaronPumaVCT]

Thankyou very much.
as soon as the weather is a little better i will refer to this.
i was driving the car all night done around 80 miles and the temperature still never reached half way but blew hot air most of the time :S but no cold

 

[DOH]

Mine struggles to reach normal temperature in this cold weather. as such I've placed a large piece of cardboard infront of the radiator, which blocks off half the rad on the passenger side.
This has helped with it warming up and will also reduce fuel costs too

 

[AaronPumaVCT]

old mll from my previous years my aunt still drives and yesterday that reached temperature without a problem.
that is a 1999 with updated interior and digital dash this one is 1998r with old interior and anologue dash :-/
I will also try that though
thanks budd
is yours also pre facelift ?